07-07-2025
Russian minister ‘kills himself' after being sacked by Putin
A Russian government minister who was dismissed on Monday by President Putin has been found dead in an apparent suicide just hours after the Kremlin announced that he was being removed from his post.
Roman Starovoit, who was sacked as Russian transport minister earlier on Monday, is reported to have shot himself with a handgun in his car near his home in the Odintsovo district near Moscow.
It is unclear when he died. Andrei Kartapolov, the head of the Russian parliament's defence committee, said that Starovoit, 53, had died 'quite a while ago'. He did not give further details.
Russian investigators said they were 'working at the scene to determine the circumstances' of death and that the leading theory was suicide. The Makarov pistol that Starovoit is said to have used to end his life was reportedly awarded to him by the Russian interior ministry in 2023.
